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View Full Version : Is language the barrier to understanding?


Iskatehard
06-29-2009, 11:50 PM
I know, I said no more threads.. But I feel like asking this..

So far, this forum has been holder of some very in depth conversations, I think. And we oftentimes conclude we can only think so much, but not know.. When concerning a lot of topics (and I think that's good, mind you).

I have been thinking about paradoxes lately.. I ask myself if a paradox is natural.. As in, somethings really DO seem to ignore laws of reasoning and logic as we know it and contradict itself in ways.. Or maybe there is really no paradoxes.. And when we encounter one, it's a product of not figuring up things correctly, and you need to go back and completely change the perception in which you approach topic of said paradox.


But.. I think I have a reason as to why some things seem uncomprehending.

We have a very defined form of language.. That's true for any community today, I think (with a language, I know few don't however)..

When we come to try to explain and understand certain topics... We can't because of our language I think...

A large bit is probably thanks to the nature of adjectives (in English, anyway). Words like.. Big, small, old, young, ect... Are solely relative to life on Earth. Concerning there is much more than life on Earth... I don't believe the linguistic nature we've developed allows for explanation of a lot of things.. And words like "big" don't explain shit.

See the heap paradox bit.. For example.. You have a heap of sand, and it's 10,000 grains. You take away 1, and have 9,999.. It's still a heap right? Take another, then another.. One at a time. When does it stop being a heap? Seemingly never.. And once you end up with only one grain remaining... Is that a heap still?

Anyone agree? Or is language not really the big problem, but rather the symbolism we use to try to understand? ... Or... Can we really just NOT understand and comprehend some things.

UrMomSkatesMongo
06-30-2009, 12:01 AM
We cannot understand and comprehend some things - Unless we somehow gave up on all our languages and found the correct, written in stone meanings form the beginning of everything, and put those in our new way of making understanding easier.

We created our own languages, and we cannot say that any, if all, of our understandings are correct - if there actually are understandings that are and have been correct from the beginning